rozkah2005 wrote:                                 
 Saba Saba Day-1990
 ==================
 
 We didn't want to stand in  line
 To vie `gainst friends on village Green
 They told us then just what was what
 "You'll have what you get..like it or not"
 
 A few took part…results were rigged
 The rest stayed home…jiggerty jigged
 Disention brings detention in the Kanu Pot
 We got whom we got….
 That's our lot.
 
 Democracy's for others made?
 Until a few stood up and braved
 The wrath of those in powerful seats
 "Detain them"  they called, and searched the streets
 
 A sign, evolved in Churchill's day
 Became the multi-party way
 To demonstrate the need for change
 Who's advocates were soon detained
 
 "Cut off their fingers and send them to
 Kanu Headquarters"……What a stew!
 Those violent words and vicious threats
 and author….stayed in back of heads
 
 Arrange a Kamukunji?…..Yes
 No license given… O.k…. no stress
 But Mwenje advertised it  "on"
 Our own Sharpville had just begun
 
 Saba Saba Saturday
 1990…meeting day
 saw empty ground, but viewers round
 were shot or beaten. Lesson sound ?
 
 Don't play it down. It happened there
 at famous Kamukunji Fair.
 The law moved in…teargas and gun
 To "keep the peace"…or have some fun?
 That message spread-The bubble burst
 Outraged villagers' freedom thirst
 The tide broke loose for Liberty
 For Justice, Truth…for you, for me
 
 Enough's enough of subjugation'
 Now to wake the Kenya nation
 No right to ask…or meet…or speak?
 What else to do but run the street
 
 By Monday morning all was calm
 Except we heard with some alarm
 just after schools began their classes
 the streets of many towns found masses
 of people out on foot…irate
 their wish…to speak…to demonstrate
 against the ones who'd have us blind
 and deaf and dumb,…..  without a mind
 
 Police and GSU moved in
 By four o'clock they'd quelled the din
 in Kawangware, Satellite….
 Innocents suffered policemen's might
 
 Husbands bludgeoned, women raped
 The way our forces operate
 And soon we all knew someone dear
 Who'd suffered and been filled with fear
 of law enforcers uncontrolled.
 Government figures…the death toll
 Twenty dead and sixty injured
 Cooked up, played down  "official figures"
 
 Scared politicians met…took stock
 Their nests to save…and all they'd "got"
 "Take up you pangas…kill them all…
 No two ways about it"  the clarion call
 
 These rigged in men of greed and power
 Began their last and final hour
 we thought.   But nay…a politician
 only gets mild admonition
 ev `n for inciting Anarchy-
 Power War , no less , …..on you and me
 
 TODAY….
 We people in the market place
 Look on in pride to those who faced
 Detention Without Trial…or worse
 Had to flee their place of birth
 just because no-one would hear
 their call…our call…for what is dear
 Our need for Truth and Liberty'
 Justice, Our Rights….DEMOCRACY.
 
 roz.early july 1990.